“There’s plenty of blame to go around” for expensive healthcare, said Miranda Dietz, director of the Health Care Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. But hospital costs make up the largest share of premium spending – about 40 cents of every premium dollar.

Unions have been a forceful voice for controlling health spending because these costs, they argue, eat into potential wage increases. That’s backed up by UC Berkeley Labor Center research, which shows that when employers spend more on premiums, they spend less on raises.

Recent federal and state Medicaid cuts are expected to double the state’s uninsured rate, causing 2.2 million people to lose insurance by 2030. Low-income patients who rely on public insurance programs like Medicaid — Medi-Cal in California — will be hit hardest, but people with commercial insurance will feel the effects too.

“I knew it was going to be bad, but seeing the projected uninsured rate doubling was shocking to me,” said Miranda Dietz, director of the Labor Center’s healthcare program.

Call center nurses at the health giant said workplace surveillance tools and AI prioritize speed and cost savings over quality and safety.

Miranda Dietz, director of the Health Care Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, said close to 3 million Californians will lose healthcare over the next two years as a result of state and federal changes. “The need for health insurance and healthcare is not going anywhere,” Dietz said.

New estimates by the UC Berkeley Labor Center project that 2.2 million more Californians will go without health insurance by 2030 because of Trump’s spending law and recent state actions.

When employers spend more on health insurance, there is less money available for wages. Rising premiums are, in effect, a hidden pay cut for working families. This sad story — stagnant or reduced wages due to rising health care costs — has been documented by economists at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the Federal Reserve.

While bronze-level plans may offer people some peace of mind, the high deductibles and copays tend to discourage people from seeking care, said Miranda Dietz, director of the Health Care Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

The Possibility Lab invited public policy researchers from across California to share their ideas on addressing these questions. Here, we present reports from three policy experts: Carrie Hahnel (on education), Anibel Ferus-Comelo (on employment), and Edward Helderop (on digital connectivity).

This year, over two dozen local jurisdictions have increased local minimum wages. West Hollywood will have a $20.25 minimum wage starting in January — the highest of any California city, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

In a 2023 study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center, UC Irvine professor Virginia Parks helped survey those who had been laid off by the Marathon oil refinery in Contra Costa County in 2020. She found that roughly a quarter were unemployed or no longer looking for work over a year after losing their jobs.

A group that represents Uber and Lyft has said drivers in California earn an average of $37 per “active” hour, while research from the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that the average pay for drivers, including tips and taking their entire working shifts and expenses into account, was $9.09 per hour.

“Based on the experience of other states, even if you spend a ton of energy on outreach, a lot of people just don’t realize what they have to do,” said Nari Rhee.

Nationally, the bill guts Medicaid spending by $700 billion, which could lead to California losing as much as $20 billion a year and 217,000 jobs, according to an April analysis by the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

The companies have said the law has increased gig workers’ pay to an average $34.46 an “active hour” in California, but research last year from the UC Berkeley Labor Center, which took into account drivers’ expenses over their entire shift, found that the average pay for drivers, with tips, was $9.09, and for delivery workers was $13.62.

More than 200 trade union members and technologists gathered in Sacramento this week at a first-of-its-kind conference to discuss how AI and other tech threatens workers and to strategize for upcoming fights and possible strikes.

Approximately 426,000 workers are expected to benefit from the law, according to estimates from the UC Berkeley Labor Center. This includes medical assistants, front office staff, medical billing personnel, patient techs, janitors, food service workers, among others.

Gig companies have said that, due in part to the initiative’s earnings guarantee, workers now make more than $30 an hour. But a May study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that, for California ride-hailing drivers, average earnings after expenses, not including tips, is about $7.12 an hour, and for delivery workers, $5.93. With tips, drivers’ average hourly earnings are $9.09 an hour, and $13.62 for delivery workers, the study found.

Here’s a look at how California made almost everyone eligible for health insurance and what’s happening to extend coverage to the rest.

The carpenters have countered that the Terner Center estimates are inflated, that residential construction workers are disproportionately reliant on public safety programs and that taxpayer funding should be used not solely as a means to build more housing, but also to support and expand the labor force needed to build it.

Long-haul truckers spend weeks on the road, away from friends and family, and in some cases, they end up earning less than minimum wage, according to a 2023 report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

The skyrocketing cost of living has prompted local officials in more than two dozen cities to enact their own, faster-growing minimum wages since 2016. Now, 40 cities and counties have a higher minimum wage than the state.

Labor unions usually push for wage hikes on behalf of their members. In California, only about 18% of workers are covered by a union contract. The health care minimum wage, Lucia said, helps level the field for health workers who do not participate or benefit from labor negotiations.

“Even though there’s been some wage gains at the bottom, the reality is that low-wage workers are still not earning a living wage,” said Lopezlira.